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| Released | 21 May 1997 (1997-05-21) | |||
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| Length | 53:21 | |||
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OK Computer is the third studio album by the Englishrock bandRadiohead, released on 21 May 1997. With their producer,Nigel Godrich, Radiohead recorded most ofOK Computer in their rehearsal space inOxfordshire and the historic mansion ofSt Catherine's Court inBath in 1996 and early 1997. They distanced themselves from the guitar-centred, lyrically introspective style of their previous album,The Bends.OK Computer's abstract lyrics, densely layered sound and eclectic influences laid the groundwork for Radiohead's later, moreexperimental work.
The lyrics depict adystopian world fraught with rampantconsumerism,social alienation,technologicalanxiety andpolitical corruption, while also exploring themes oftransport,conformity,paranoia,death, modern British life andglobalisation. In this capacity,OK Computer is said to have prescient insight into the mood of 21st-century life. Radiohead used unconventional production techniques, including naturalreverberation, and noaudio separation.Strings were recorded atAbbey Road Studios in London. Most of the album was recorded live.
EMI had low expectations ofOK Computer, deeming it uncommercial and difficult to market. However, it reached number one on theUK Albums Chart and debuted at number 21 on theBillboard 200, Radiohead's highest album entry on the US charts at the time, and was certifiedfive times platinum in the UK and double platinum in the US. It expanded Radiohead's international popularity and sold at least 7.8 million copies worldwide. "Paranoid Android", "Karma Police", "Lucky" and "No Surprises" were released as singles.
OK Computer received widespread acclaim from critics and has been cited asone of the greatest albums of the 1990s and all time. It was nominated forAlbum of the Year and wonBest Alternative Music Album at the1998 Grammy Awards. It was also nominated forBest British Album at the1998 Brit Awards. The album initiated a shift in British rock away fromBritpop toward melancholic, atmospheric alternative rock that became more prevalent in the next decade. In 2014, it was added by the USLibrary of Congress to theNational Recording Registry as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". A remastered version with additional tracks,OKNOTOK 1997 2017, was released in 2017. In 2019, in response to aninternet leak, Radiohead releasedMiniDiscs [Hacked], comprising hours of additional material.
In 1995, Radiohead toured in support of their second album,The Bends (1995). Midway through the tour,Brian Eno commissioned them to contribute a song toThe Help Album, acharity compilation organised byWar Child; the album was to be recorded over the course of a single day, 4 September 1995, and rush-released that week.[3] Radiohead recorded "Lucky" in five hours withNigel Godrich, who had engineeredThe Bends and produced several RadioheadB-sides.[4] Godrich said of the session: "Those things are the most inspiring, when you do stuff really fast and there's nothing to lose. We left feeling fairly euphoric. So after establishing a bit of a rapport work-wise, I was sort of hoping I would be involved with the next album."[5] The singer,Thom Yorke, said "Lucky" shaped the nascent sound and mood of their upcoming record:[4]"'Lucky' was indicative of what we wanted to do. It was like the first mark on the wall."[6]
Radiohead found touring stressful and took a break in January 1996.[7] They sought to move away from the introspective style ofThe Bends. The drummer,Philip Selway, said: "There was an awful lot of soul-searching [onThe Bends]. To do that again on another album would be excruciatingly boring."[1] Yorke said he did not want to do "another miserable, morbid and negative record", and was "writing down all the positive things that I hear or see. I'm not able to put them into music yet and I don't want to just force it."[2]
The critical and commercial success ofThe Bends gave Radiohead the confidence to self-produce their third album.[4] Their label,Parlophone, gave them a £100,000 budget for recording equipment.[8][9] The lead guitarist,Jonny Greenwood, said "the only concept that we had for this album was that we wanted to record it away from the city and that we wanted to record it ourselves".[10] According to the guitaristEd O'Brien, "Everyone said, 'You'll sell six or seven million if you bring outThe Bends Pt 2,' and we're like, 'We'll kick against that and do the opposite'."[11] A number of producers were suggested, including major figures such asScott Litt,[12] but Radiohead were encouraged by their sessions with Godrich.[13] They consulted him for advice on equipment,[14] and prepared for the sessions by buying their own, including aplate reverberator purchased from the songwriterJona Lewie.[4] Although Godrich had sought to focus onelectronic dance music,[15] he outgrew his role as advisor and became the album's co-producer.[14]
In early 1996, Radiohead recorded demos atChipping Norton Recording Studios, Oxfordshire.[16] In July, they began rehearsing and recording in their Canned Applause studio, a converted shed nearDidcot, Oxfordshire.[17] Even without the deadline that contributed to the stress ofThe Bends,[18] the band had difficulties, which Selway blamed on their choice to self-produce: "We're jumping from song to song, and when we started to run out of ideas, we'd move on to a new song ... The stupid thing was that we were nearly finished when we'd move on, because so much work had gone into them."[19]
The members worked with nearly equal roles in the production and formation of the music, though Yorke was still firmly "the loudest voice", according to O'Brien.[20] Selway said, "We give each other an awful lot of space to develop our parts, but at the same time we are all very critical about what the other person is doing."[19] Godrich's role as co-producer was part collaborator and part managerial outsider. He said that Radiohead "need to have another person outside their unit, especially when they're all playing together, to say when the take goes well ... I take up slack when people aren't taking responsibility—the term 'producing a record' means taking responsibility for the record ... It's my job to ensure that they get the ideas across."[21] Godrich has produced every Radiohead album since, and has been characterised as Radiohead's "sixth member", an allusion toGeorge Martin's nickname as the "fifth Beatle".[22][23][24]
Radiohead decided that Canned Applause was an unsatisfactory recording location, which Yorke attributed to its proximity to the band members' homes, and Jonny Greenwood attributed to its lack of dining and bathroom facilities.[20] They had nearly completed "Electioneering", "No Surprises", "Subterranean Homesick Alien" and "The Tourist".[25] They took a break from recording to tour America in 1996, opening forAlanis Morissette, performing early versions of several new songs.[26] Greenwood said his main memory of the tour was of "playing interminableHammond organ solos to an audience full of quietly despairing teenage girls".[27]
During the tour,Baz Luhrmann commissioned Radiohead to write a song for his upcoming filmRomeo + Juliet and gave them the final 30 minutes of the film. Yorke said: "When we saw the scene in whichClaire Danes holds theColt .45 against her head, we started working on the song immediately."[28] Soon afterwards, Radiohead wrote and recorded "Exit Music (For a Film)", which plays over the film's end credits but was excluded from thesoundtrack album at their request.[29] The song helped shape the direction ofOK Computer. Yorke said it "was the first performance we'd ever recorded where every note of it made my head spin—something I was proud of, something I could turn up really, really loud and not wince at any moment".[4]
Radiohead resumed recording in September 1996 atSt Catherine's Court, a historic mansion nearBath owned by the actressJane Seymour.[30] It was unoccupied but sometimes used for corporate functions.[31] The change of setting marked an important transition in the recording process. Greenwood said it "was less like a laboratory experiment, which is what being in a studio is usually like, and more about a group of people making their first record together".[31]
The band made extensive use of the different rooms and acoustics in the house. The vocals on "Exit Music (For a Film)" feature naturalreverberation achieved by recording on a stone staircase, and "Let Down" was recorded in a ballroom at 3 am.[32] Isolation allowed the band to work at a different pace, with more flexible and spontaneous working hours. O'Brien said that "the biggest pressure was actually completing [the recording]. We weren't given any deadlines and we had complete freedom to do what we wanted. We were delaying it because we were a bit frightened of actually finishing stuff."[33]
Yorke was satisfied with the recordings made at the house, and enjoyed working withoutaudio separation, meaning that instruments were notoverdubbed separately.[34] O'Brien estimated that 80 per cent of the album was recorded live,[31][34] and said: "I hate doing overdubs, because it just doesn't feel natural. ... Something special happens when you're playing live; a lot of it is just looking at one another and knowing there are four other people making it happen."[34][35] Many of Yorke's vocals were first takes; he felt that if he made other attempts he would "start to think about it and it would sound really lame".[36]
Radiohead returned to Canned Applause in October for rehearsals,[37] and completed most ofOK Computer in further sessions at St. Catherine's Court. By Christmas, they had narrowed the track listing to 14 songs.[38] Additional recording took place atthe Church inCrouch End, London.[39] Thestrings were recorded atAbbey Road Studios in London in January 1997. GodrichmixedOK Computer at various London studios.[40] He preferred a quick and "hands-off" approach to mixing, and said: "I feel like I get too into it. I start fiddling with things and I fuck it up ... I generally take about half a day to do a mix. If it's any longer than that, you lose it. The hardest thing is trying to stay fresh, to stay objective."[5]OK Computer wasmastered by Chris Blair at Abbey Road[40] and completed on 6 March 1997.[41]
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Yorke said Radiohead's starting point was the "incredibly dense and terrifying sound" ofBitches Brew, the 1970avant-gardejazz fusion album byMiles Davis.[42] He said: "It was building something up and watching it fall apart, that's the beauty of it. It was at the core of what we were trying to do withOK Computer."[36] Yorke identified "I'll Wear It Proudly" byElvis Costello, "Fall on Me" byR.E.M., "Dress" byPJ Harvey and "A Day in the Life" by theBeatles as particularly influential.[4] Radiohead drew further inspiration from thefilm soundtrack composerEnnio Morricone and thekrautrock bandCan, musicians Yorke described as "abusing the recording process".[4] Jonny Greenwood describedOK Computer as a product of being "in love with all these brilliant records ... trying to recreate them, and missing".[43]
According to Yorke, Radiohead hoped to achieve an "atmosphere that's perhaps a bit shocking when you first hear it, but only as shocking as the atmosphere on theBeach Boys'Pet Sounds".[42] They extended their instrumentation to includeelectric piano,Mellotron andglockenspiel. Jonny Greenwood summarised the exploratory approach as "when we've got what we suspect to be an amazing song, but nobody knows what they're gonna play on it".[44]Spin saidOK Computer sounded like "a DIYelectronica album made with guitars".[45]
Critics suggested a stylistic debt to 1970sprogressive rock, an influence Radiohead disavowed.[46][47] According to Andy Greene inRolling Stone, Radiohead "were collectively hostile to seventies progressive rock ... but that didn't stop them from reinventing prog from scratch onOK Computer, particularly on the six-and-a-half-minute 'Paranoid Android'."[26]Tom Hull believed the album was "still prog, but may just be because rock has so thoroughly enveloped musical storytelling that this sort of thing has become inevitable".[48] Writing in 2017,The New Yorker'sKelefa Sanneh saidOK Computer "was profoundly prog: grand and dystopian, with a lead single that was more than six minutes long".[46]
The lyrics, written by Yorke, are more abstract compared to his personal, emotional lyrics forThe Bends. CriticAlex Ross said the lyrics "seemed a mixture of overheard conversations,techno-speak, and fragments of a harsh diary" with "images ofriot police at political rallies, anguished lives in tidy suburbs,yuppies freaking out, sympathetic aliens gliding overhead."[49] Themes include transport, technology, insanity, death, modern British life,globalisation andanti-capitalism.[50] Yorke said: "On this album, the outside world became all there was ... I'm just takingPolaroids of things around me moving too fast."[51] He toldQ: "It was like there's a secret camera in a room and it's watching the character who walks in—a different character for each song. The camera's not quite me. It's neutral, emotionless. But not emotionless at all. In fact, the very opposite."[52] Yorke also drew inspiration from books, includingNoam Chomsky's political writing,[53]Eric Hobsbawm'sThe Age of Extremes,Will Hutton'sThe State We're In,Jonathan Coe'sWhat a Carve Up! andPhilip K. Dick'sVALIS.[54]
The songs ofOK Computer do not have a coherent narrative, and the lyrics are generally considered abstract or oblique. Nonetheless, many critics, journalists, and scholars consider it aconcept album orsong cycle, noting its strong thematic cohesion, aesthetic unity, and the structural logic of the sequencing.[nb 1] Although the songs share common themes, Radiohead said they did not intend to link them through a narrative and do not considerOK Computer a concept album.[31][55][56] Jonny Greenwood said: "I think one album title and one computer voice do not make a concept album. That's a bit of a red herring."[57] However, they intended the album to be heard as a whole, and spent two weeks ordering the track list. O'Brien said: "The context of each song is really important ... It's not a concept album but there is a continuity there."[55]
The opening track, "Airbag", is underpinned by a beat built from a seconds-long recording of Selway's drumming. The band sampled the drum track with asampler and edited it with aMacintosh computer, inspired by the music ofDJ Shadow, but admitted to making approximations in emulating Shadow's style due to their programming inexperience.[58][59] The bassline stops and starts unexpectedly, achieving an effect similar to 1970sdub.[60] The references to automobile crashes andreincarnation were inspired by a magazine article titled "An Airbag Saved My Life" andThe Tibetan Book of the Dead. Yorke wrote "Airbag" about the illusion of safety offered by modern transit, and "the idea that whenever you go out on the road you could be killed".[52] The BBC wrote about the influence ofJ. G. Ballard, especially his 1973 novelCrash, on the lyrics.[61] Music journalistTim Footman noted that the song's technical innovations and lyrical concerns demonstrated the "key paradox" of the album: "The musicians and producer are delighting in the sonic possibilities of modern technology; the singer, meanwhile, is railing against its social, moral, and psychological impact ... It's a contradiction mirrored in the culture clash of the music, with the 'real' guitars negotiating an uneasy stand-off with the hacked-up, processed drums."[62]
Split into four sections with an overall running time of 6:23, "Paranoid Android" is among the band's longest songs. The unconventional structure was inspired by the Beatles' "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" andQueen's "Bohemian Rhapsody", which also eschew a traditionalverse-chorus-verse structure.[63] Its musical style was also inspired by the music of thePixies.[64] The song was written by Yorke after an unpleasant night at a Los Angeles bar, where he saw a woman react violently after someone spilled a drink on her.[52] Its title and lyrics are a reference toMarvin the Paranoid Android fromDouglas Adams'sThe Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series.[64]
The use of electric keyboards in "Subterranean Homesick Alien" is an example of Radiohead's attempts to emulate the atmosphere ofBitches Brew.[43][65] Its title references theBob Dylan song "Subterranean Homesick Blues", and the lyrics describe an isolated narrator who fantasises about beingabducted byextraterrestrials. The narrator speculates that, upon returning to Earth, his friends would not believe his story and he would remain a misfit.[66] The lyrics were inspired by an assignment from Yorke's time atAbingdon School to write a piece of "Martian poetry", a British literary movement that humorously recontextualises mundane aspects of human life from an alien perspective.[67]
William Shakespeare'sRomeo and Juliet inspired the lyrics for "Exit Music (For a Film)".[64] Initially Yorke wanted to work lines from the play into the song, but the final draft of the lyrics became a broad summary of the narrative.[29] He said: "I sawthe Zeffirelli version when I was 13 and I cried my eyes out, because I couldn't understand why, the morning after they shagged, they didn't just run away. It's a song for two people who should run away before all the bad stuff starts."[68] Yorke compared the opening of the song, which mostly features his singing paired with acoustic guitar, toJohnny Cash'sAt Folsom Prison.[69]Mellotron choir and other electronic voices are used throughout the track.[70] The song climaxes with the entrance of drums[70] and distorted bass run through afuzz pedal.[23] The climactic portion of the song is an attempt to emulate the sound oftrip hop groupPortishead, but in a style that the bassist,Colin Greenwood, called more "stilted and leaden and mechanical".[71] The song concludes by fading back to Yorke's voice, acoustic guitar and Mellotron.[29]
"Let Down" contains multilayeredarpeggiated guitars and electric piano. Jonny Greenwood plays his guitar part in a differenttime signature to the other instruments.[72] O'Brien said the song was influenced byPhil Spector, a producer and songwriter best known for his reverberating "Wall of Sound" recording techniques.[58] The lyrics, Yorke said, are about a fear of being trapped,[68] and "about that feeling that you get when you're in transit but you're not in control of it—you just go past thousands of places and thousands of people and you're completely removed from it".[64] Of the line "Don't get sentimental / It always ends up drivel", Yorke said: "Sentimentality is being emotional for the sake of it. We're bombarded with sentiment, people emoting. That's the Let Down. Feeling every emotion is fake. Or rather every emotion is on the same plane whether it's a car advert or a pop song."[36] Yorke felt that scepticism of emotion was characteristic ofGeneration X and that it had informed the band's approach to the album.[73]
"Karma Police" has two main verses that alternate with a subdued break, followed by a different ending section.[74] The verses centre around acoustic guitar and piano,[74] with a chord progression indebted to the Beatles' "Sexy Sadie".[75][76][77] Starting at 2:34, the song transitions into an orchestrated section with the repeated line "For a minute there, I lost myself".[74] It ends withfeedback generated with adelay effect.[58][76] The title and lyrics to "Karma Police" originate from anin-joke duringThe Bends tour; Jonny Greenwood said "whenever someone was behaving in a particularly shitty way, we'd say 'Thekarma police will catch up with him sooner or later.'"[64]
"Fitter Happier" is a shortmusique concrète track that consists of sampled musical and background sound and spoken-word lyrics recited by "Fred",[17] asynthesised voice from the MacintoshSimpleText application.[78] Yorke wrote the lyrics "in ten minutes" after a period ofwriter's block while the rest of the band were playing.[68] He described the words as a checklist of slogans for the 1990s; he considered it "the most upsetting thing I've ever written",[64] and said it was "liberating" to give the words to a neutral-sounding computer voice.[68] Among the samples in the background is a loop from the 1975 filmThree Days of the Condor.[78] The band considered using "Fitter Happier" as the album's opening track, but decided the effect was off-putting.[33]
Steve Lowe called the song "penetrating surgery on pseudo-meaningful corporations' lifestyles" with "a repugnance for prevailing yuppified social values".[75] Among the loosely connected imagery of the lyrics, Footman identified the song's subject as "the materially comfortable, morally empty embodiment of modern, Western humanity, half-salaryman, half-Stepford Wife, destined for the metaphorical farrowing crate, propped up onProzac,Viagra and anything else his insurance plan can cover."[79] Sam Steele called the lyrics "a stream of received imagery: scraps of media information, interspersed with lifestyle ad slogans and private prayers for a healthier existence. It is the hum of a world buzzing with words, one of the messages seeming to be that we live in such a synthetic universe we have grown unable to detect reality from artifice."[80]
"Electioneering", featuring acowbell and a distorted guitar solo, is the album's most rock-oriented track and one of the heaviest songs Radiohead has recorded.[81] It has been compared to Radiohead's earlier style onPablo Honey.[78][82] The cynical "Electioneering" is the album's most directly political song,[83][84] with lyrics inspired by thepoll tax riots.[68] The song was also inspired by Chomsky'sManufacturing Consent, a book analysing contemporary mass media under thepropaganda model.[53] Yorke likened its lyrics, which focus on political and artistic compromise, to "a preacher ranting in front of a bank of microphones".[55][85] Regarding its oblique political references, Yorke said, "What can you say about theIMF, or politicians? Or people selling arms to African countries, employing slave labour or whatever. What can you say? You just write down 'Cattle prods and the IMF' and people who know, know."[4] O'Brien said the song was about the promotional cycle of touring: "After a while you feel like a politician who has to kiss babies and shake hands all day long."[28]
"Climbing Up the Walls" – described byMelody Maker as "monumental chaos"[86] – is layered with a string section, ambient noise and repetitive, metallic percussion. The string section, composed by Jonny Greenwood and written for 16 instruments, was inspired bymodern classical composerKrzysztof Penderecki'sThrenody to the Victims of Hiroshima. Greenwood said, "I got very excited at the prospect of doing string parts that didn't sound like 'Eleanor Rigby', which is what all string parts have sounded like for the past 30 years."[55]Select described Yorke's distraught vocals and theatonal strings as "Thom's voice dissolving into a fearful, blood-clotted scream as Jonny whips the sound of a million dying elephants into a crescendo".[43] For the lyrics, Yorke drew from his time as an orderly in a mental hospital during theCare in the Community policy ofdeinstitutionalising mental health patients, and aNew York Times article about serial killers.[28] He said:
This is about the unspeakable. Literally skull-crushing. I used to work in a mental hospital around the time that Care in the Community started, and we all just knew what was going to happen. And it's one of the scariest things to happen in this country, because a lot of them weren't just harmless ... It was hailing violently when we recorded this. It seemed to add to the mood.[68]
"No Surprises", recorded in a single take,[87] is arranged with electric guitar (inspired by the Beach Boys' "Wouldn't It Be Nice"),[88] acoustic guitar, glockenspiel and vocal harmonies.[89] The band strove to replicate the mood ofLouis Armstrong's 1968 recording of "What a Wonderful World" and the soul music ofMarvin Gaye.[28] Yorke identified the subject of the song as "someone who's trying hard to keep it together but can't".[4] The lyrics seem to portray a suicide[80] or an unfulfilling life, and dissatisfaction with contemporary social and political order.[90] Some lines refer to rural[91] or suburban imagery.[54] One of the key metaphors in the song is the opening line, "a heart that's full up like alandfill"; according to Yorke, the song is a "fucked-up nursery rhyme" that "stems from my unhealthy obsession of what to do with plastic boxes and plastic bottles ... All this stuff is getting buried, the debris of our lives. It doesn't rot, it just stays there. That's how we deal, that's how I deal with stuff, I bury it."[92] The song's gentle mood contrasts sharply with its harsh lyrics;[93][94] Steele said, "even when the subject is suicide ... O'Brien's guitar is as soothing as balm on a red-raw psyche, the song rendered like a bittersweet child's prayer."[80]
"Lucky" was inspired by theBosnian War. Sam Taylor said it was "the one track on [The Help Album] to capture the sombre terror of the conflict", and that its serious subject matter and dark tone made the band "too 'real' to be allowed on the Britpop gravy train".[95] The lyrics were pared down from many pages of notes, and were originally more politically explicit.[33] The lyrics depict a man surviving an aeroplane crash[83] and are drawn from Yorke's anxiety about transportation.[84] The musical centerpiece of "Lucky" is its three-piece guitar arrangement,[8] which grew out of the high-pitched chiming sound played by O'Brien in the song's introduction,[52] achieved by strumming above theguitar nut.[96] Critics likened its lead guitar toPink Floyd and, more broadly,arena rock.[97][6][98][99]
The album ends with "The Tourist", which Jonny Greenwood wrote as an unusually staid piece where something "doesn't have to happen ... every three seconds". He said,"'The Tourist' doesn't sound like Radiohead at all. It has become a song with space."[28] The lyrics, written by Yorke, were inspired by his experience of watching American tourists in France frantically trying to see as many tourist attractions as possible.[68] He said it was chosen as the closing track because "a lot of the album was about background noise and everything moving too fast and not being able to keep up. It was really obvious to have 'Tourist' as the last song. That song was written to me from me, saying, 'Idiot, slow down.' Because at that point, Ineeded to. So that was the only resolution there could be: to slow down."[42] The "unexpectedly bluesy waltz" draws to a close as the guitars drop out, leaving only drums and bass, and concludes with the sound of a small bell.[8]
The titleOK Computer is taken from the 1978 radio seriesHitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, in which the characterZaphod Beeblebrox speaks the phrase "Okay, computer, I want full manual control now." The members of Radiohead listened to the series on the bus during their 1996 tour and Yorke made a note of the phrase.[26] "OK Computer" was initially a working title for the B-side "Palo Alto".[100] The title stuck with the band; according to Jonny Greenwood, it "started attaching itself and creating all these weird resonances with what we were trying to do".[53]
Yorke said the title "refers to embracing the future, it refers to being terrified of the future, of our future, of everyone else's. It's to do with standing in a room where all these appliances are going off and all these machines and computers and so on ... and the sound it makes."[57] He described the title as "a really resigned, terrified phrase", to him similar to theCoca-Cola advertisement "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing".[53]Wired writer Leander Kahney suggests that it is an homage to Macintosh computers, as the Mac'sspeech recognition software responds to the command "OK computer" as an alternative to clicking the "OK" button.[101] Other titles considered wereOnes and Zeroes—a reference to thebinary numeral system—andYour Home May Be at Risk If You Do Not Keep Up Payments.[100]
TheOK Computer artwork is a collage of images and text created by Yorke (credited as the White Chocolate Farm) andStanley Donwood.[102] Yorke commissioned Donwood to work on a visual diary alongside the recording sessions. He said he did not feel confident in his music until he saw a visual representation to accompany it.[54] According to Donwood, the blue-and-white palette was the result of "trying to make something the colour of bleached bone".[103][104]
The image of two stick figures shaking hands appears in the liner notes and on the disc label in CD and LP releases. Yorke said the image symbolised exploitation: "Someone's being sold something they don't really want, and someone's being friendly because they're trying to sell something. That's what it means to me."[33] The image was later used on the cover forRadiohead: The Best Of (2008).[33] Explaining the artwork's themes, Yorke said, "It's quite sad, and quite funny as well. All the artwork and so on ... It was all the things that I hadn't said in the songs."[33]
Motifs in the artwork include motorways, aeroplanes, families, corporate logos and cityscapes.[105] The photograph of a motorway on the cover was likely taken inHartford, Connecticut, where Radiohead performed in 1996.[106] The words "Lost Child" feature prominently, and the booklet artwork contains phrases in theconstructed languageEsperanto and health-related instructions in both English and Greek. TheUncut criticDavid Cavanagh said the use ofnon-sequiturs created an effect "akin to being lifestyle-coached by a lunatic".[8] White scribbles, Donwood's method of correcting mistakes rather than using the computer functionundo,[103] are present everywhere in the collages.[107]
Theliner notes contain the full lyrics, rendered with atypical syntax, alternate spelling[84] and small annotations.[nb 2] The lyrics are also arranged and spaced in shapes that resemble hidden images.[108] In keeping with Radiohead's emerginganti-corporate stance, the production credits contain the ironic copyright notice "Lyrics reproduced by kind permission even though we wrote them."[109]
According to Selway, Radiohead's American labelCapitol saw the album as"'commercial suicide'. They weren't really into it. At that point, we got the fear. How is this going to be received?"[1] Yorke recalled: "When we first gave it to Capitol, they were taken aback. I don't really know why it's so important now, but I'm excited about it."[110] Capitol lowered its sales forecast from two million to half a million.[111] In O'Brien's view, onlyParlophone, the band's British label, remained optimistic, while global distributors dramatically reduced their sales estimates.[112] Label representatives were reportedly disappointed with the lack of marketable songs, especially the absence of anything resembling Radiohead's 1992 hit "Creep".[113] "OK Computer isn't the album we're going to rule the world with", Colin Greenwood predicted at the time. "It's not as hitting-everything-loudly-whilst-waggling-the-tongue-in-and-out, likeThe Bends. There's less of theVan Halen factor."[43]
Parlophone launched an unorthodox advertising campaign, taking full-page advertisements in high-profile British newspapers andtube stations with lyrics for "Fitter Happier" in large black letters against white backgrounds.[1] The same lyrics, and artwork adapted from the album, were repurposed for shirt designs.[33] Yorke said they chose the "Fitter Happier" lyrics to link what a critic called "a coherent set of concerns" between the album artwork and its promotional material.[33]
Other unconventional merchandise included afloppy disk containing Radioheadscreensavers and anFM radio in the shape of adesktop computer.[114] In America, Capitol sent 1,000 cassette players to prominent members of the press and music industry, each with a copy of the album permanently glued inside.[115] Gary Gersh, Capitol's president, said: "Our job is just to take them as a left-of-centre band and bring the centre to them. That's our focus, and we won't let up until they're the biggest band in the world."[116]
Radiohead planned to produce a video for every song on the album, but the project was abandoned due to financial and time constraints.[117] According toGrant Gee, the director of the "No Surprises" video, the plan was cancelled when the videos for "Paranoid Android" and "Karma Police" went over budget.[118] Also cancelled were plans for thetrip hop groupMassive Attack toremix the album.[119]
Radiohead's website was created to promote the album, which went live at the time of its release, making the band one of the first tomanage an online presence.[120] The first major Radioheadfansite, Atease, was created shortly following the album's release, with its title taken from "Fitter Happier".[120] In 2017, forOK Computer's 20th anniversary, Radiohead temporarily restored their website to its 1997 state.[121]
Radiohead chose "Paranoid Android" as the lead single, despite its unusually long running time and lack of a catchy chorus.[77][86] Colin Greenwood said the song was "hardly the radio-friendly, breakthrough, buzz bin unit shifter [radio stations] can have been expecting", but that Capitol supported the choice.[86] The song premiered on the Radio 1 programmeThe Evening Session in April 1997[122] and was released as a single in May 1997.[123] On the strength of frequent radio play on Radio 1[86] and rotation of the song's music video on MTV,[124] "Paranoid Android" reached number three in the UK, giving Radiohead their highest chart position.[125]
"Karma Police" was released in August 1997 and "No Surprises" in January 1998.[126] Both singles charted in the UK top ten, and "Karma Police" peaked at number 14 on theBillboardModern Rock Tracks chart.[127][128] "Lucky" was released as a single in France, but did not chart.[129] "Let Down", considered for release as the lead single,[130] was issued as apromotional single in September 1997 and charted on the Modern Rock Tracks chart at number 29.[128] In 2025, after it became popular on the social media platformTikTok, "Let Down" became Radiohead's first entry on theBillboard Hot 100 since their 2008 single "Nude".[131]
Radiohead embarked on the "Against Demons" world tour in promotion ofOK Computer, commencing at the album launch inBarcelona on 22 May 1997.[132] They toured the UK and Ireland, continental Europe, North America, Japan and Australasia,[133] concluding on 18 April 1998 in New York.[134] A documentary byGrant Gee following Radiohead on the tour,Meeting People Is Easy, premiered in November 1998.[135]
The tour was taxing for the band, particularly Yorke, who said: "That tour was a year too long. I was the first person to tire of it, then six months later everyone in the band was saying it. Then six months after that, nobody was talking any more."[136] In 2003, Colin Greenwood said the tour was the lowest point in Radiohead's career: "There is nothing worse than having to play in front of 20,000 people when someone—when Thom—absolutely does not want to be there, and you can see that hundred-yard stare in his eyes. You hate having to put your friend through that experience."[137]
The tour included Radiohead's first headline performance atGlastonbury Festival on 28 June 1997. Despite technical problems that almost caused Yorke to abandon the stage, the performance was acclaimed and cemented Radiohead as a major live act.[138]Rolling Stone described it as "an absolute triumph", and in 2004Q named it the greatest concert of all time.[139] In 2023, theGuardian named it the greatest Glastonbury headline set, writing that "frustration and tension led to the band playing out of their skins, adding a startling potency to a set that confirmedOK Computer as the defining sound of rock'spost-Britpop shift".[140]
OK Computer was released in Japan on 21 May, in the UK on 16 June, in Canada on 17 June and in the US on 1 July.[141] It was released on CD, double-LP vinyl record,cassette andMiniDisc.[142] It debuted at number one in the UK with sales of 136,000 copies in its first week.[143] In the US, it debuted at number 21 on theBillboard 200.[144] It held the number-one spot in the UK for two weeks and stayed in the top ten for several more, becoming the UK's eighth-bestselling record that year.[145]
By February 1998,OK Computer had sold at least half a million copies in the UK and 2 million worldwide.[83] By September 2000, it had sold 4.5 million copies worldwide.[146] TheLos Angeles Times reported that by June 2001 it had sold 1.4 million copies in the US, and in April 2006 theIFPI announced it had sold 3 million copies across Europe.[147][148] In the UK, it was certified gold in June 1997, platinum in July, and five-times platinum in August 2013.[149] It is certified double platinum in the US,[150] in addition to certifications in other markets. By May 2016,Nielsen SoundScan figures showedOK Computer had sold 2.5 million digital album units in the US, plus 900,000 sales measured inalbum-equivalent units.[151] Twenty years to the week after its release, theOfficial Charts Company recorded total UK sales of 1.5 million, including album-equivalent units.[143] Tallying American and European sales,OK Computer has sold at least 6.9 million copies worldwide (or 7.8 million with album-equivalent units).[nb 3]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Chicago Tribune |   [152] |
| Entertainment Weekly | B+[153] |
| The Guardian |  [81] |
| Los Angeles Times | [154] |
| NME | 10/10[97] |
| Pitchfork | 10/10[155] |
| Q | [93] |
| Rolling Stone | [156] |
| Select | 5/5[157] |
| Spin | 8/10[45] |
OK Computer has been met with widespread acclaim. Critics described it as a landmark release of far-reaching impact and importance,[158][159] but noted that its experimentalism made it a challenging listen. According toTim Footman, "Not since 1967, with the release ofSgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, had so many major critics agreed immediately, not only on an album's merits, but on its long-term significance, and its ability to encapsulate a particular point in history."[160] In the British press, the album garnered favourable reviews inNME,[97]Melody Maker,[161]The Guardian[81] andQ.[93]Nick Kent wrote inMojo that "Others may end up selling more, but in 20 years' time I'm bettingOK Computer will be seen as the key record of 1997, the one to take rock forward instead of artfully revamping images and song-structures from an earlier era."[77]John Harris wrote inSelect: "Every word sounds achingly sincere, every note spewed from the heart, and yet it roots itself firmly in a world of steel, glass,random-access memory and prickly-skinned paranoia."[157]
The album was well received by critics in North America.Rolling Stone,[156]Spin,[45] theLos Angeles Times,[154] thePittsburgh Post-Gazette,[162]Pitchfork[155] and theDaily Herald[163] published positive reviews. InThe New Yorker,Alex Ross praised its progressiveness, and contrasted Radiohead's risk-taking with the musically conservative "dadrock" of their contemporariesOasis. Ross wrote: "Throughout the album, contrasts of mood and style are extreme ... This band has pulled off one of the great art-pop balancing acts in the history of rock."[164] Ryan Schreiber ofPitchfork lauded the record's emotional appeal, writing that it "is brimming with genuine emotion, beautiful and complex imagery and music, and lyrics that are at once passive and fire-breathing".[155]
Reviews forEntertainment Weekly,[153] theChicago Tribune,[152] andTime[165] were mixed.Robert Christgau fromThe Village Voice said Radiohead immersed Yorke's vocals in "enough electronic marginal distinction to feed a coal town for a month" to compensate for the "soulless" songs, resulting in "arid"art rock.[166] In an otherwise positive review, Andy Gill wrote forThe Independent: "For all its ambition and determination to break new ground,OK Computer is not, finally, as impressive asThe Bends, which covered much the same sort of emotional knots, but with better tunes. It is easy to be impressed by, but ultimately hard to love, an album that luxuriates so readily in its own despondency."[167]
OK Computer was nominated forGrammy Awards asAlbum of the Year andBest Alternative Music Album at the40th Annual Grammy Awards in 1998,[168] winning the latter.[169] It was also nominated for Best British Album at the1998 Brit Awards.[170] The album was shortlisted for the 1997Mercury Prize, a prestigious award recognising the best British or Irish album of the year. The day before the winner was announced, oddsmakers gaveOK Computer the best chance to win among ten nominees, but it lost toNew Forms byRoni Size/Reprazent.[171]
OK Computer was named the best album of the year byMojo,Vox,Entertainment Weekly,Hot Press,Muziekkrant OOR,HUMO,Eye Weekly andInpress, and tied for first place withDaft Punk'sHomework inThe Face. It was named the second-best inNME,Melody Maker,Rolling Stone,Village Voice,Spin andUncut.Q andLes Inrockuptibles listed the album in their year-end polls.[172]
The praise overwhelmed the band. Jonny Greenwood felt it had been exaggerated becauseThe Bends had been "under-reviewed possibly and under-received".[42] Radiohead rejected links to progressive rock and art rock, despite comparisons to Pink Floyd's 1973 albumThe Dark Side of the Moon.[173] Yorke responded: "We write pop songs ... There was no intention of it being 'art'. It's a reflection of all the disparate things we were listening to when we recorded it."[57] He was nevertheless pleased that listeners identified their influences: "What really blew my head off was the fact that people got all the things, all the textures and the sounds and the atmospheres we were trying to create."[174]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic | [175] |
| The A.V. Club | A[176] |
| Blender | [177] |
| Christgau's Consumer Guide | B−[178] |
| Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [179] |
| MusicHound Rock | 5/5[180] |
| Q | [181] |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [182] |
| Slant Magazine | [183] |
| Tom Hull – on the Web | B+[48] |
OK Computer has frequently appeared in professional lists ofthe greatest albums of all time. A number of publications, includingNME,Melody Maker,Alternative Press,[184]Spin,[185]Pitchfork,[186]Time,[187]Metro Weekly[188] andSlant Magazine[189] placedOK Computer prominently in lists of best albums of the 1990s or of all time. It was voted number 4 inColin Larkin'sAll Time Top 1000 Albums 3rd Edition (2000).Rolling Stone ranked it 42 on its list ofThe 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2020.[190] It was previously ranked at 162 in 2003[191] and 2012.[192] In 2019,Classic Rock named it the 47th-best rock album, writing: "Combining prog with alternative influences, they came up with a style that was supple, subtle and sensuous. This wasn't Pink Floyd for the end of the millennium, it was original, visionary and brilliant [...] An epochal album that called time on the narrow colloquial nostalgia of Britpop, sold millions and turned Radiohead into global angst-rock superstars,OK Computer is not quite the flawless masterpiece of fond folklore, but it holds up extremely well."[193] In 2026,OK Computer was inducted into theGrammy Hall of Fame.[194]
Retrospective reviews fromBBC Music,[195]The A.V. Club[176] andSlant[183] were favourable.Rolling Stone gave the album five out of five in the 2004 edition ofThe Rolling Stone Album Guide, withRob Sheffield writing: "Radiohead was claiming the high ground abandoned byNirvana,Pearl Jam,U2,R.E.M., everybody; and fans around the world loved them for trying too hard at a time when nobody else was even bothering."[182] Christgau said later that "most would rateOK Computer the apogee ofpomo texture".[196] In 2014, the United StatesNational Recording Preservation Board selected the album for preservation in theNational Recording Registry of theLibrary of Congress, which designates it as a sound recording that has had significant cultural, historical or aesthetic impact in American life.[197] InThe New Yorker,Kevin Dettmar of described it as the record that made modern world possible for alternative rock music.[198]
OK Computer has been cited by some as undeserving of its acclaim. In a poll surveying thousands conducted byBBC Radio 6 Music,OK Computer was named the sixth-most overrated album.[199] David H. Green ofThe Daily Telegraph called the album "self-indulgent whingeing" and maintains that the positive critical consensus towardsOK Computer is an indication of "a 20th-century delusion that rock is the bastion of serious commentary on popular music" to the detriment ofelectronic anddance music.[200] The album was selected as an entry in "Sacred Cows", anNME column questioning the critical status of "revered albums", in which Henry Yates said "there's no defiance, gallows humour or chink of light beneath the curtain, just a sense of meek, resigned despondency" and criticised the record as "the moment when Radiohead stopped being 'good' [compared toThe Bends] and started being 'important'".[201] In aSpin article on the "myth" that "Radiohead Can Do No Wrong", Chris Norris argues that the acclaim forOK Computer inflated expectations for subsequent Radiohead releases.[202] Christgau felt "the reason the readers of the British magazineQ absurdly votedOK Computer the greatest album of the 20th century is that it integrated what was briefly called electronica into rock". Having deemed it "self-regarding" and overrated, he later warmed to the record and found it indicative of Radiohead's cerebral sensibility and "rife with discrete pleasures and surprises".[203]
OK Computer was recorded in the lead up to the1997 general election and released a month after the victory ofTony Blair'sNew Labour government. The album was perceived by critics as an expression of dissent and scepticism toward the new government and a reaction against the national mood of optimism.Dorian Lynskey [Wikidata] wrote, "On May 1, 1997, Labour supporters toasted their landslide victory to the sound of 'Things Can Only Get Better.' A few weeks later,OK Computer appeared likeBanquo's ghost to warn:No, things can only get worse."[204] According to Amy Britton, the album "showed not everyone was ready to join the party, instead tapping into another feeling felt throughout the UK—pre-millennial angst. ... huge corporations were impossible to fight against—this was the worldOK Computer soundtracked, not the wave of British optimism."[205]
In an interview, Yorke doubted that Blair's policies would differ from the preceding two decades ofConservative government. He said the public reaction to thedeath ofPrincess Diana was more significant, as a moment when the British public realised "theroyals had had us by the balls for the last hundred years, as had the media and the state."[33] The band's distaste with the commercialised promotion ofOK Computer reinforced their anti-capitalist politics, which would be further explored on their subsequent releases.[206]
Critics have compared Radiohead's statements of political dissatisfaction to those of earlier rock bands.David Stubbs said that, wherepunk rock had been a rebellion against a time of deficit and poverty,OK Computer protested the "mechanistic convenience" of contemporary surplus and excess.[207] Alex Ross said the album "pictured the onslaught of theInformation Age and a young person's panicky embrace of it" and made the band into "theposter boys for a certain kind of knowing alienation—asTalking Heads and R.E.M. had been before."[49]Jon Pareles ofThe New York Times found precedents in the work of Pink Floyd andMadness for Radiohead's concerns "about a culture of numbness, building docile workers and enforced byself-help regimes andanti-depressants".[208]
The album's tone has been described as millennial[31][209] orfuturistic,[210] anticipating cultural and political trends. According toThe A.V. Club writer Steven Hyden in the feature "Whatever Happened to Alternative Nation", "Radiohead appeared to be ahead of the curve, forecasting the paranoia, media-driven insanity, and omnipresent sense of impending doom that's subsequently come to characterise everyday life in the 21st century."[211] In1000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die,Tom Moon describedOK Computer as a "prescient ...dystopian essay on the darker implications of technology ... oozing [with] a vague sense of dread, and a touch ofBig Brother foreboding that bears strong resemblance to the constant disquiet of life onSecurity Level Orange,post-9/11."[212]Chris Martin ofColdplay remarked that, "It would be interesting to see how the world would be different ifDick Cheney really listened to Radiohead'sOK Computer. I think the world would probably improve. That album is fucking brilliant. It changed my life, so why wouldn't it change his?"[213]
The album inspired aradio play, also titledOK Computer, which was first broadcast onBBC Radio 4 in 2007. The play, written byJoel Horwood, Chris Perkins,Al Smith and Chris Thorpe, interprets the album into a story about a man who awakens in a Berlin hospital with memory loss and returns to England with doubts that the life he's returned to is his own.[214]
A lot of people have takenOK Computer and said, 'This is the yardstick. If I can attain something half as good, I'm doing pretty well.' But I've never heard anything really derivative ofOK Computer—which is interesting, as it shows that what Radiohead were doing was probably even more complicated than it seemed.
The whole sound of it and the emotional experience crossed a lot of boundaries. It tapped into a lot of buried emotions that people hadn't wanted to explore or talk about.
The release ofOK Computer coincided with the decline ofBritpop.[nb 4]Alexis Petridis ofThe Guardian called the album "the defining sound of rock's post-Britpop shift".[140] ThroughOK Computer's influence, the dominant UK guitar pop shifted toward an approximation of "Radiohead's paranoid but confessional, slurry but catchy" approach.[217] Many newer British acts adopted similarly complex, atmospheric arrangements; for example, the post-Britpop bandTravis worked with Godrich to create the languid pop texture ofThe Man Who, which became the fourth best-selling album of 1999 in the UK.[218] Some in the British press accused Travis of appropriating Radiohead's sound.[219] Steven Hyden ofAV Club said that by 1999, starting withThe Man Who, "what Radiohead had created inOK Computer had already grown much bigger than the band," and that the album went on to influence "a wave of British-rock balladeers that reached its zenith in the '00s".[211]
OK Computer influenced the next generation of British alternative rock bands,[nb 5] and musicians in a variety of genres have praised it.[nb 6]Bloc Party[220] andTV on the Radio[221] listened to or were influenced byOK Computer; TV on the Radio's debut album was titledOK Calculator as a lighthearted tribute.[222] Radiohead described the pervasiveness of bands that "sound like us" as one reason to break with the style ofOK Computer for their next album,Kid A.[223]
AlthoughOK Computer's influence on rock is widely acknowledged, several critics believe that its experimental inclination was not authentically embraced on a wide scale. Footman said the "Radiohead Lite" bands that followed were "missing [OK Computer's] sonic inventiveness, not to mention the lyrical substance".[224]David Cavanagh said that most ofOK Computer's purported mainstream influence more likely stemmed from the ballads onThe Bends. According to Cavanagh, "The populist albums of the post-OK Computer era—theVerve'sUrban Hymns, Travis'sGood Feeling,Stereophonics'Word Gets Around,Robbie Williams'Life thru a Lens—effectively closed the door thatOK Computer's boffin-esque inventiveness had opened."[8]John Harris believed thatOK Computer was one of the "fleeting signs that British rock music might [have been] returning to its inventive traditions" in the wake of Britpop's demise.[225] While Harris concludes that British rock ultimately developed an "altogether more conservative tendency", he said that withOK Computer and their subsequent material, Radiohead provided a "clarion call" to fill the void left by Britpop.[225] ThePitchfork journalist Marc Hogan argued thatOK Computer marked an "ending point" for the rock-orientedalbum era, as its mainstream and critical success remained unmatched by any rock album since.[226]
OK Computer triggered a minor revival of progressive rock and ambitious concept albums, with a new wave of prog-influenced bands creditingOK Computer for enabling their scene to thrive.Brandon Curtis ofSecret Machines said, "Songs like 'Paranoid Android' made it OK to write music differently, to be more experimental ...OK Computer was important because it reintroduced unconventional writing and song structures."[47]Steven Wilson ofPorcupine Tree said, "I don't think ambition is a dirty word any more. Radiohead were the Trojan Horse in that respect. Here's a band that came from the indie rock tradition that snuck in under the radar when the journalists weren't looking and started making these absurdly ambitious and pretentious—and all the better for it—records."[227] In 2005,Q namedOK Computer the tenth-best progressive rock album,[228] and in 2014 it was voted the 87th-greatest by readers ofProg.[229]
In 2006, the American reggae band theEasy Star All-Stars releasedRadiodread, a reggae interpretation ofOK Computer.[230] In 2007, the music blogStereogum releasedOKX: A Tribute to OK Computer, with covers by artists includingVampire Weekend.[231]
Radiohead's record contract withEMI, the parent company of Parlophone, ended in 2003. EMI retained the rights to Radiohead's material recorded under their contract, includingOK Computer.[232] In 2007, EMI releasedRadiohead Box Set, a compilation of albums recorded while Radiohead were signed to EMI.[233] On 19 August 2008, EMI reissuedOK Computer as a double LP as part of the "From the Capitol Vaults" series, along with other Radiohead albums.[234] It became the tenth-bestselling vinyl record of 2008, selling almost 10,000 copies.[235] The reissue was connected in the press to theresurgence of interest in vinyl in the early 21st century.[236][237] In 2016, Yorke auctioned off a copy ofWilliam Blake'sSongs of Innocence and of Experience, containing a draft of the "Airbag" lyrics and his own annotations, with proceeds going toOxfam.[238]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic | [239] |
| The A.V. Club | A[240] |
| Paste | 100/100[241] |
| Pitchfork | 10/10[242] |
| Rolling Stone | [243] |
| Q | [244] |
| Uncut | [245] |
On 24 March 2009, EMI reissuedOK Computer as an expanded "Collector's Edition", alongsidePablo Honey andThe Bends, without Radiohead's involvement. The reissue was released in a 2-CD edition and an expanded 2-CD, 1-DVD edition. The first disc contains the original album, the second disc containsB-sides collected fromOK Computer singles and live recording sessions, and the DVD contains a collection of music videos and a live television performance.[246] All the material had been previously released and the music was not remastered.[247][248]
AllMusic,[239]Uncut,[245]Q,[244]Rolling Stone,[243]Paste[241] andPopMatters[248] praised the supplemental material, but with reservations. Scott Plagenhoef ofPitchfork awarded the reissue aperfect score, arguing that it was worth buying for fans who did not already own the extra material. Plagenhoef said: "That the band had nothing to do with these is beside the point: this is the final word on these records, if for no other reason that theBeatles' September 9 remaster campaign is, arguably, the end of the CD era."[242]The A.V. Club writer Josh Modell praised the bonus disc and DVD, and saidOK Computer was "the perfect synthesis of Radiohead's seemingly conflicted impulses".[240]
In April 2016,XL Recordings acquired Radiohead's back catalogue. The EMI reissues, released without Radiohead's approval, were removed from streaming services.[249] In May 2016, XL reissued Radiohead's back catalogue on vinyl, includingOK Computer.[250] On 23 June 2017, XL released a remastered 20th-anniversaryOK Computer reissue,OKNOTOK 1997 2017. It includes eight B-sides and three previously unreleased tracks: "I Promise", "Man of War" and "Lift". The special edition includes books of artwork and notes and anaudio cassette of demos and session recordings, including previously unreleased songs.[251]OKNOTOK debuted at number two on theUK Album Chart,[252] boosted by Radiohead's third headline performance atGlastonbury Festival.[253] It was the best-selling album in independent UK record shops for a year.[254]
In June 2019, nearly 18 hours of demos, outtakes and other material recorded during theOK Computer periodleaked online. On 11 June, Radiohead made the archive available to stream or purchase from the music sharing siteBandcamp for 18 days, with proceeds going to the environmental advocacy groupExtinction Rebellion.[255]
All tracks are written byThom Yorke,Jonny Greenwood,Philip Selway,Ed O'Brien andColin Greenwood.
Personnel adapted fromOK Computer liner notes[256]
Weekly charts[edit]
| Year-end charts[edit]
|
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Argentina (CAPIF)[313] | Platinum | 60,000^ |
| Australia (ARIA)[314] | Platinum | 70,000^ |
| Belgium (BRMA)[315] | 2× Platinum | 100,000* |
| Canada (Music Canada)[316] | 5× Platinum | 500,000‡ |
| Denmark (IFPI Danmark)[317] | 4× Platinum | 80,000‡ |
| France (SNEP)[318] | 2× Gold | 200,000* |
| Iceland (FHF) | — | 7,622[319] |
| Italy (FIMI)[320] sales since 2009 | 2× Platinum | 100,000‡ |
| Japan (RIAJ)[321] | Gold | 100,000^ |
| Netherlands (NVPI)[322] | Platinum | 100,000^ |
| New Zealand (RMNZ)[323] | Platinum | 15,000^ |
| Norway (IFPI Norway)[324] | Gold | 25,000* |
| Spain (PROMUSICAE)[325] | Gold | 50,000^ |
| Sweden (GLF)[326] | Gold | 40,000^ |
| Switzerland (IFPI Switzerland)[327] | Gold | 25,000^ |
| United Kingdom (BPI)[328] | 5× Platinum | 1,579,415[143] |
| United States (RIAA)[329] | 2× Platinum | 2,000,000^ |
| Summaries | ||
| Europe (IFPI)[330] | 3× Platinum | 3,000,000* |
* Sales figures based on certification alone. | ||
The first of six No. 1 albums for Radiohead,OK Computer debuted atop the chart this week in 1997 on sales of 136,476 copies, and is the Oxfordshire band's biggest seller, with a to-date tally of 1,579,415 including 16,172 from sales-equivalent streams.
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